Love and Luna Lovegood
by JoeMerl
Summary: For the 10 Pairings Challenge, a collection of one-shots about Luna Lovegood and ten different male characters. Currently up: Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, Percy Weasley, Rabastan Lestrange, Remus Lupin, Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini.
1. Harry Potter

**Author's Notes:** Done for the 10 Pairings Challenge, where I picked a character (Luna Lovegood) and received ten random guys to pair her with. Trust me; there are some on this list whom I wouldn't have chosen. But first, Harry, whom I totally would have.

* * *

Harry was wearing a rather forced smile as he listened to the Very Important Wizard blather on, trying to get Harry to agree to appear in butterbeer advertisements. The fact that Harry had declined three times already did not seem to dissuade him.

Luna quirked her head, noticed Harry's expression and grabbed his hand, smiling vaguely at the other man. "Excuse me, but the hostess needs to see Harry for a moment."

"Ah, of course. Well, Mr. Potter, do think it over—"

Harry waved vaguely as Luna pulled him into the crowd of other Very Important Witches and Wizards, all of whom were wearing dress robes and chattering to each other. Harry leaned over to Luna and, out of the corner of his mouth, asked, "Does Hermione actually need to see me?"

"No. I was just worried that you were about to have an incurionniption ."

"A what?"

"A sort of mental fit that you can get from extreme, unending boredom."

Harry snorted. He wanted to ask if she was joking, but then decided that it would be funnier if he didn't know.

Ron appeared out of the crowd, grabbing a finger sandwich from a passing waiter. "Wotcher, mates," he said. "How are you?"

"I'm about to have an incurionniption," Harry said dully.

"Yeah, this place is a bit boring, isn't it?" Ron said, even though he was smirking. Ever since the final battle, Ron had become almost as much of a celebrity as Harry himself; Harry couldn't help but notice that he seemed to enjoy finally getting attention. "Still, Hermione says we've made a ton of gold tonight—I think she's planning to just buy up all the house-elves in the country and be done with it."

"It's not that I'm against helping house-elves," Harry muttered. "But I hate coming to these fancy parties. I feel phony, just smiling and telling people how much I support _spew._ "

"We have _got_ to get her to change that name."

"Even when Hermione is doing good things, she can have a bit of a one-track mind sometimes," Luna said suddenly. "If she wanted your help, she should have come up with a charity event that you would enjoy more."

"Yeah, like a reenactment of You-Know-Who's defeat," Ron said, grinning.

"I was thinking a Quidditch match, myself. Oh, no—"

Another Very Important Wizard was making his way determinedly toward Harry.

"I'll take this one for you," Ron muttered, and marched toward the man, hand outstretched. "Hello, there! Ron Weasley, lucky enough to be dating our lovely hostess—"

Luna was still holding Harry's hand. "Come on," she said, and she seemed to almost glide through the crowd with him stumbling behind her.

Somehow they managed to reach the backdoor without being intercepted, and slipped out into the yard.

The S.P.E.W. gala was being held at an old mansion; it used to belong to some old and storied Pureblood family, but was now rented out for weddings and other fancy parties. It had a lovely garden: fenced in with tall hedges, it was filled with magical flowers that swayed softly in the moonlight. Live fairies flew through the air or sat primping themselves on the greenery, twinkling like hundreds of multicolored stars.

Harry and Luna took a few steps down the garden's cobblestone path, their hands still held together. They could hear the sound of the party going on inside, but it was a dull buzz in the nocturnal quiet. "This is nice, isn't it?" Luna said, glancing around.

"Yes," Harry breathed. "Or at least, I enjoy it better than in there." He nodded back toward the manor.

He suddenly chuckled. She looked curiously at him. "Do you remember the Yule Ball?"

"I didn't go, remember? I was a year too young. Besides, I didn't want to stay at school and leave Dad all alone during the holidays."

"Well, you didn't miss much. This just reminded me—back then, our dates ditched us, and Ron and I wound up leaving the Great Hall to walk around the grounds."

"Yes, I remember Padma Patel telling me about that," she said conversationally. "She said that you two wouldn't dance with her or her sister, so they found some boys who would."

Harry shrugged. "I don't like to dance. I had to help open the ball, and I probably looked like an idiot, up there in front of everybody."

"I like to dance," Luna said vaguely. She glanced at him with a small smile. "How do you feel about dancing when no one else is around?"

He gave a wry smile. "Well, I don't want to look like an idiot in front of _you,_ either."

"Please?"

She took his hand, still in hers, and placed it on her shoulder; she took the other and placed it on her waist. Their eyes met. Harry gave a nervous smile. "You're serious?" he said, but it wasn't really a question. "We don't have any music."

Still smiling, Luna rested her head on Harry's shoulder and began to hum; he almost burst out laughing. "Alright, then. I'll give it a try."

They began to dance, but that was being a bit generous; it was more like they shuffled their feet on the cobblestone, turning in a circle, neither one of them actually leading. But Luna was holding herself against him and her long hair was tickling his chin and even though his cheeks were burning Harry couldn't help but feel strangely serene. After a few rotations he inevitably stepped on her foot and winced; she laughed, however, like a quiet, tinkering bell, and before Harry knew it he was laughing too, and she lifted her head and met his eye once again.

"This is lovely, isn't it?"

"Yes, I…"

Harry trailed off, distracted by the way that the moonlight was reflecting off of Luna's pale face, or the way that a passing fairy's light made her eyes sparkle up at him.

Harry drew Luna closer, their lips about to touch—

"Oh, we found them, Hermione! But can it wait? It looks like they're busy."

Harry looked up, startled, to see Ginny and Hermione standing in the doorway of the mansion. Hermione looked suitably embarrassed, but Ginny was smirking. Harry was suddenly very aware of the fact that he had Luna in his arms with their faces noses about a millimeter apart. His cheeks began to burn again.

"What are you two—never mind," Hermione said, shaking her head. "Come on, Ginny."

"No, I want see where this is going!"

" _Come on—_ "

She dragged Ginny back into the house, leaving Luna and Harry alone once again.

As Harry sputtered in embarrassment, Luna simply turned his face towards him and asked, "Where were we?"

Harry chuckled, still looking sheepish as he pressed his grinning lips against hers.

* * *

 **A/N:** In an AU where she and Harry were never interested in each other, Ginny would be the #1 Huna shipper, full stop.


	2. Neville Longbottom

Neville grimaced in pain, stifling a sharp cry.

"I'm sorry," Luna said, taking her hands away from his wounded arm.

He waved his good hand. "No...ignore me. Just do what you can," he said thickly.

"I have, but it doesn't seem to be much," she said, sounding politely confused. "This cut keeps bleeding no matter what spells I try. You're sure you didn't hear what curse they used?"

"No."

"Then I'm afraid you'll need to see Madam Pomfrey."

They both glanced at the wall that kept this secret passage hidden; through the thick stone, it was impossible to hear if the Carrows, Crabbe and Goyle were still outside. "That's easier said than done," Neville muttered.

"Yes. We should probably wait for a few minutes. But your arm is bleeding rather badly."

She took off her scarf and began to tie it, very tightly, around Neville's arm. His face contorted with pain, but he tried very hard not to cry out again.

"There. That should slow the bleeding down, at least."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

They sat quietly for a moment, with no light but their wands. Neville was staring at the floor.

"I do hope that Ginny got away," Luna said in her strangely casual tone.

"She'll be fine. She probably managed to Stun all four of them by herself," Neville said, slumping against the wall. Then he muttered something which Luna couldn't quite make out, though she heard " _I'd_ be any help."

"What was that?"

"Nothing," he said quickly. "It's just…" He hesitated, then motioned to Luna's scarf wrapped around his arm. "You've probably noticed that I'm not all that useful in a duel. Or with any other kind of magic, for that matter."

"That's silly. I think you're very useful."

He gave a wry smile. "Then how am I the one who always gets injured? You and Ginny are miles ahead of me when it comes to fighting these blighters. Half the time I just get in the way."

"That's not true," Luna said, and now she sounded unusually firm. "I'm actually not very good at offensive spells myself, if you haven't noticed. I do seem to be getting rather good at healing spells, but I'm not as good as Hannah. And I'm not nearly as important to Dumbledore's Army as you are."

Neville stared at her. "What makes me so important?" he blurted.

"You're our leader."

Neville almost laughed. "No! Ginny's our leader."

Luna thought carefully. "In some ways, but Ginny is more like our general. I feel like you're the one who really holds our group together, though. You're usually the one who takes the lead when we're discussing things, and before we go on missions, you always find a way to say something inspiring. I can see how much braver you make everybody else feel about what you're doing. Even if you're not all that great at magic, you're basically the heart of our entire group."

Neville wasn't sure what to say to that. He suddenly reached out his hand, hesitated, and then lay it on top of Luna's, feeling his face grow warm.

"No. _You're_ our heart," he said with conviction. She blinked her large eyes. "I mean...I feel like you're the one who inspires _me._ Just by being so…" He struggled to find the right word. " _Hopeful,_ all the time. Every time I feel like giving up, I think about how you seem to believe in us, and, well…"

Their eyes met, and then Neville's darted down sheepishly. She continued to watch him.

"Thank you," she said finally.

He glanced up at her. "You too."

Another long pause followed. Neville gingerly poked at Luna's scarf, trying to assess whether or not the blood would soon be soaked through.

"I think we can risk leaving now," Luna said, as if she did not feel the awkwardness in the air.

He nodded. "Good idea."

They opened the wall, looked around, and crept out into the corridor. Despite Neville's warnings to get back to her common room, Luna took his good arm and gently led him to the Hospital Wing.

* * *

Within a few months, Ginny and Luna were both gone. Neville was holed up in the Room of Requirement without them, leading what remained of Dumbledore's Army.

A lot of the time, he felt alone. But not entirely.

Every time that they were about to do a mission, or every time that he had to stand up and give one of those speeches that Luna found inspiring, Neville would put one hand over his chest and feel Luna's scarf, folded up carefully and held in the inner pocket of his robe.

He might be the only one left, now, but as far as he was concerned Luna was still the heart of their group.


	3. Percy Weasley

One thing that Percy had discovered since moving back into the Burrow: Luna Lovegood came around a lot these days. Apparently she had grown close to Ginny and Ron in the time that he'd been away, so now her presence in the house was somewhat normal, if not quite as common as with Harry or Hermione.

He didn't interact with her much, at first. Though he was a bit thrown when one day, while waiting for Ginny to come downstairs, she suddenly asked, "What do you do all day?"

"Pardon?" he looked up from his book, giving her a look to demonstrate that he found her phrasing rather rude.

"I just notice, you only ever seem to be reading whenever I come by here. Is that all that you do?"

Percy looked away. "No. I just...have a lot of free time these days. I'm on a sabbatical from work," he added defensively.

Luna just said "Hmm." Percy had gone back to his book, but was very aware of Luna staring at him until Ginny finally arrived.

Truth be told, Percy was getting rather bored just sitting around the house; doing nothing was one of the few things that he was very bad at. But then, he found ways to make himself useful to the rest of the family. He helped Ron sort through all the red tape necessary to reopen George's joke shop. He helped his father prepare for his new job as the Liaison to the Muggle Prime Minister. And he spent one long afternoon trying to calm Hermione's nerves about N.E.W.T.s, as she was planning to return to Hogwarts that September.

And occasionally, he talked with Luna. It seemed like sometimes she came over without even expecting Ginny to be around, and when he was there, she tried to tell him about wrackspurts and heliotropes and asked for inside information about the various conspiracies supposedly controlling the Ministry of Magic. He found this annoying at first, especially after that first awkward conversation, but she seemed so earnest about her strange beliefs that it actually became a little bit funny. Either way, Percy tried to be as diplomatic as possible.

After about a half-dozen of such talks spread over several weeks, she surprised Percy by asking him to read over something that she had written.

"It's a report about some dollyrog fur that we found in the forest," she explained. "It's already been published in my father's magazine, but I want to see if I can get it a real Magizoology journal. Do you think you could read it over for me?"

Percy took the small stack of parchments with a skeptical expression. "That's not my bailiwick, to be honest...but I could give it a once-over if you want."

She smiled.

She came by again the next day to find her parchments covered with red writing, and Percy carefully went over his thoughts, which ranged from "this sentence is a little jumbled" to "your entire thesis is based entirely on a clump of hair that probably came from a house cat." She considered them all with a thoughtful silence.

"Like I said, your basic presentation is quite good, even if the evidence is a bit...spotty," he said, handing the stack back to her. "But I think if you make a few changes it...er...might interest the journal a bit."

She smiled, taking the pages back from him. "Thank you, Percy," she said, rising from her seat. "I'll see what I can do."

"No problem, honestly. I—"

He was cut off as, all of a sudden, Luna bent down and kissed him on the mouth.

His eyes widened behind his glasses, his face went slack, and his hands just sort of froze in a way that looked stupid and awkward. It was a soft, gentle kiss, and when Luna straightened up she looked at him as if nothing had happened. "I'll see you later," she said vaguely, floating out of the house.

Percy just sat there, rather stunned.

The next time she came over, Percy felt the need to set the record straight.

"Look, er—Luna. About what happened the other day."

"Do you mean when you helped me with my article, or when I kissed you afterwards?"

"The—second thing."

"I thought that's what it would be," she said brightly.

"I—" Percy looked at her calm face, and was suddenly at a loss for words. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Why did you do that?" he asked finally.

He was half expecting the answer to be "a blonde girl's saliva will protect you from zorpulnutters," or something equally ridiculous. Instead she actually looked a bit bashful.

"Because you helped me, and I like you, I suppose." She tilted her head curiously. "Do you like me?"

"Do I—I mean—" Percy felt his ears begin to burn. "You're my baby sister's age."

"Ginny and I are both adults now."

"...Yes, but still, I'm six years older than you. It's not very…" He struggled to find the right word. " _Seemly._ And you're not exactly my type." He muttered that last part, hoping that it didn't sound too rude.

Luna considered that for a moment. "I know why you're always so bored all the time," she said suddenly.

" _Huh?_ " Percy was a bit nonplussed by this sudden change of topic.

"Ginny says you went on sabbatical because you were trying to clear your head—figure out what's important to you other than work. Right?" Percy nodded slowly. "Well, as far as I can tell, you haven't actually _replaced_ your work with anything. It's very nice of you to help me and your family with things, but even then you just treat them as little odd jobs. You seem to be afraid to try anything new."

"I am not—" He shook his head. "What does any of this have to do with you kissing me?!" he demanded.

She didn't answer. Instead she said, "Tomorrow I might go look for more evidence of the dollyrog in the forest. Would you like to come?"

"I don't really—"

"It would be something different. You might actually enjoy it."

There was something about the way that she looked at him as she said that; he had to admit, he _did_ find her rather pretty. He looked away, feeling his whole face burning now.

...Like she said, there was nothing actually _wrong_ with the two of them spending time together. And it wasn't like he had any other plans.

"I'll think about it," he murmured.

He glanced back to see her smiling at him, and despite himself he couldn't help but feel like smiling back.


	4. Rabastan Lestrange

**Author's Notes:** Remember how I said some of the people I got for this challenge were ones whom I wouldn't have chosen? That includes characters with no lines, only vague physical descriptions and about twenty years on our heroine. Sorry that it didn't turn out very long.

* * *

Luna had to admit that she thought Rabastan Lestrange was very handsome.

He was tall and very lean, with dark hair; it was a bit long and looked very soft, and it was usually disheveled in the sort of way that seemed quite fetching. His nose and chin were a bit sharp, and his face a bit thin, but his eyes were large and sorrowful. They would have looked nice, except that they were always darting fearfully around the room. He had a very twitchy look about him in general; whenever he came to bring Luna and Ollivander their food he seemed nervous, always glancing behind him, as if afraid someone was going to sneak up on him from behind.

He seemed so scared that a part of Luna pitied the man.

But only a small part.

"You're one of the men who tortured my friend Neville's parents," she said bluntly, the first time that he had come into their cellar prison.

Those eyes, large and sorrowful but also fearful, turned to glare at her. "What's your point?" he croaked. "You want some of it yourself?"

And then he threw their food down to the ground, allowing some of it to fly off onto the floor.

He slammed the door behind him and Mr. Ollivander, whimpering, tried to collect the food, but Luna sat still, regarding the door with a curious eye.

Rabastan Lestrange was handsome, and he looked so scared as to be pitiable.

But he was also an awful man, and Luna was smart enough not to forget it.


	5. Remus Lupin

"Professor Lupin?"

Remus had been in the middle of packing up his briefcase to find the blonde second year standing in front of his desk. He smiled. "Yes, Luna?" he said, snapping his briefcase closed.

"I just wanted to say that I quite enjoyed today's lesson," she said, in her usual dreamy tone. Her eyes wandered to the glass case in the corner of the room, where the imp that they had studied was making rude gestures. "We never had practical lessons with Professor Lockhart."

The corners of Remus' mouth twitched a bit. "I hear from my third years that he did try once, but it didn't go very well. Either way, thank you for your kind words," he said, picking up his case and walking around his desk.

"Oh, you're welcome. Everyone I know says that you're one of the best teachers in school," Luna said, and despite her nonchalant tone Remus couldn't help but beam. "Though I was wondering if you could tell me what else we'll be studying this year?"

Remus frowned slightly, leaning back against the desk. "Well, after we finish with imps we're going to study Mackled Malaclaws, then do the section in your book on poltergeists if we have time...maybe use Peeves as an example, if Professor Dumbledore will let me get away with it..."

He smirked at Luna, only to find that she now looked thoughtful.

"Actually, I was wondering if you had any plans to go over the blibbering humdinger?"

"Pardon?"

Luna suddenly looked bashful, which Remus vaguely recognized was unusual for her.

"I'm fairly certain it would count as a Dark creature—it's at least as dangerous as an imp or an erkling, anyway. They fly around and drink up water, and when they spit it out, it looks normal but is foul and sickening. When a swarm of them attack a river or a lake, the infection can get quite bad—that's why some water is unhealthy to drink these days. But they've also been known to sneak around humans and suck up whatever they're drinking when no one is looking."

Remus felt like he did an admirable job of keeping a neutral expression through all that, though he couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from twitching once again.

"Your father is Xenophilius Lovegood, I believe? The man who owns _The Quibbler?_ "

"Yes, sir." Her tone was a bit guarded now, but she was pleased when Professor Lupin let that go with an indulgent smile.

"Well, that all certainly sounds interesting, Luna, but I'm afraid we won't be able to study—bubbling hummingbirds?"

"Blibbering humdingers."

" _Blibbering humdingers_ this semester. They don't seem to be in any of my books, you see, so I don't really have enough information to construct a whole lesson about them."

Luna's face brightened. "Oh, well, that's not a problem," she said, opening her bag and taking out a magazine. "My daddy just had a whole feature devoted to them in _The Quibbler._ They're very active this time of year, so there have been lots of sightings."

Remus took the magazine, raised an eyebrow, and then looked back at Luna's hopeful face. He thought of handing it right back, but instead opted to be diplomatic. "Well, I'll...try to take a look at this when I have the time."

Luna didn't seem to hear his bemused tone, so she simply said, "Thank you, Professor," and glided out of the room.

With her back turned, Remus was unable to see the pink flush in her cheeks as she left.

* * *

"Darren Harper? _Really,_ Ethel?"

"I think he's cute," Ethel Popkin said defensively, barely looking up at her friend. Luna noticed that she had doodled _E.P. + D.H._ in the margins of her book, surrounded by a heart.

Luna leaned forward. "Excuse me, but could you two please stop talking? I can't hear Professor Lupin."

Both girls gave Luna a withering look. "Pardon me," Professor Lupin suddenly called from the front of the room. "Is there something you lot would like to share with the rest of the class?"

"No, sir," said Ethel, quickly turning around in her seat.

"Then I think you can wait until lunch to discuss it amongst yourselves," he said, with a wry smile. "Now..."

He went back to discussing the next lesson's quiz, and a few minutes later it was time to leave. "Luna," he said, as she joined the stream of Ravenclaws who were filing out. "Could I see you for just a moment?"

Luna turned toward his desk as the last of her Housemates disappeared. The wry smile was back on his face as he reached into his beat-up briefcase and took out the copy of _The Quibbler_ that she had given him. "I must say, I quite enjoyed reading this," he said. "But unfortunately I still don't think we'll be doing much with the blibbering humdinger this year. On the whole, the information about them is a bit too... _speculative._ None of these articles can even quite agree how to ward them off."

"I suppose I didn't think of that," Luna said, with a sad sort of smile. "Hopefully that will change when someone finally catches some for study."

"We can only hope," Remus said, keeping an impressive sense of gravity in his tone.

He tried to hand her back the magazine, but Luna found herself pushing it to him. "Oh, you can keep it," she said vaguely. "Daddy always has lots of spare copies at home."

"Well, thank you," he said, with a nod and a smile. "And actually..." He began digging through his briefcase again. "I have something for you as well."

Remus extracted a slightly worn copy of a book called _Demons in the Dark and the Mysteries of Magizoology._ Luna's already bulging eyes went wider as she took it.

"For me? Are you quite sure? I notice that you don't seem to have enough possessions that you can just give them away."

Remus looked a bit put-out by that blunt statement, but said "I happen to have two copies of that one. A friend didn't know I already owned it. I've noticed that you seem to have quite the aptitude for magical creatures, so I thought you might enjoy it."

"I will. Thank you very much, sir."

Professor Lupin gave a kind smile, and Luna smiled back.

* * *

Later, when Luna was back in her common room and had a chance to really look at the book, she paused on the first page, which said simply _Property of_ followed by the signature _R.J. Lupin._

After a moment's hesitation, she wrote _\+ L.L._ under the _R.J._ and enclosed the two initials with a heart.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:** If Hogwarts students were going to fancy a teacher, it would probably be Lupin. (Well, okay, or Lockhart.)

I'm trying to avoid _too_ many stories where Luna is just a Manic Pixie Dream Girl who fixes every guy's problems. For this chapter, I imposed a second challenge on myself: try to write something about Remus without mentioning that he's a werewolf. Which, admittedly, meant passing up a great chance to do something with the "Luna=moon" angle.


	6. Theodore Nott

**Author's Notes:** Look, another character who never canonically talks! I'll just try to expand on what J.K. Rowling has said about him, then.

(What's funny is that in some ways, these are actually easier.)

* * *

Theodore Nott first met Luna Lovegood when he was walking on the grounds with his fellow Slytherins. (Well, it was probably more accurate to say that he was walking _beside_ them, but anyway.) Lovegood had been wearing some kind of...thing on her head...he wasn't sure what, but it looked ridiculous...and Parkinson, being the fountain of wit that she was, called out "Nice fashion statement, Lovegood!"

As Malfoy and his cronies chortled, Lovegood had just turned and, with an almost haughty air, said "It's not a fashion statement. It's protection against the homflehummers."

While the others had laughed harder, Theo had simply raised an eyebrow. Then, just as she was almost out of earshot, he'd called out and asked her what a homflehummer was.

The other Slytherins had stared at him, but Theo wasn't concerned. He liked to keep people guessing, and as a rule he didn't really care what other people thought of him.

Theo had a bit of a strained relationship with his fellow Slytherins. He was on fair terms with Malfoy and Zabini, but honestly he thought that they were both kind of idiots, and he was fairly certain that Crabbe and Goyle were actually just trolls that Malfoy had done a fair job disguising as human students. Honestly, the problem with most of his Housemates is that they were so determined to _impress_ everyone. Malfoy wanted everyone to love him because he was a rich Pureblood (as if those weren't common in Slytherin House), Zabini wanted girls to faint in his presence because he was good-looking, Parkinson wanted to be friends with the people who were richer and better-looking than she was...it was all just so bloody _tedious._

It was no wonder that Theo found Luna Lovegood refreshing. He knew that she was a nutter, but at least she didn't care what other people thought of her.

So yes, Theo liked talking to her. And yes, he even bought a subscription to _The Quibbler._ He thought it was funny. Sometimes he would even share the ridiculous stories with his dormmates, but he always got annoyed if their mockery turned from the articles to Lovegood herself.

While Theo didn't put much stock in the others' opinions, it did sort of annoy him when they assumed that he just naturally had to share them. They seemed to think that just because they were all Slytherins, or all Purebloods or whatever, that they all had to share one single, overworked brain. This particularly became prominent when the Dark Lord returned and Theo's father, a former Death Eater, got pressed back into his service. Malfoy seemed convinced that Theo was as excited about it as he was, and made a big deal of privately showing Theo his Dark Mark with a triumphant smirk on his face. Theo's response—a dull, emotionless "Well"—had clearly irked him.

Theo was, admittedly, rather upset when his father was thrown in Azkaban after the incident at the Ministry of Magic. Unlike Malfoy, however, he did not express that pain in a sudden devotion to the wizard who had _sent_ his father on that doomed mission. Nor had the elder Nott made serving the Dark Lord sound like a particularly happy career choice. Theo honestly wasn't sure which side would offer a better choice for his family, but he found himself lumped onto the Death Eater side by default once Severus Snape became Headmaster.

Which is why, after some other Slytherins managed to capture three members of Dumbledore's Army, they told Theo to guard them while they ran off to get one of the Carrows.

Normally, he would have just gone along with this to avoid trouble. Unfortunately for him, one of these captives was Lovegood.

He held their wands in his hand, beating them against his other palm as he tried to decide what to do. While Abbott tried to comfort the younger kid whose name Theo did not know, Lovegood looked straight at Theo, giving him a quizzical look.

"Are you still reading _The Quibbler?_ " she asked suddenly, as her companions gave her a strange look.

Theo didn't want to admit it, but he felt his ears begin to burn.

"It's banned from the school, remember?"

"Yes, but I thought perhaps you had managed to get it anyway. Or do you just not want to admit it?"

Theo looked away, taking another long moment to think about his options. Then he sighed, let his arm with the wands drop to his side, and loosened his grip just enough so that one fell out of his hand.

It hit the ground and rolled a few inches closer to the captives. They all paused, waiting for Theo to pick it up, before Lovegood reached out and cautiously took it.

Of course, Theo thought with annoyance, he couldn't just let them go...he would get dragged down to the dungeon to be Crucioed unless there was at least some sign of a struggle. So he made a show of turning around lazily and reaching out his hand. "I'm going to need that back," he said, not quite looking her in the eye.

Lovegood hesitated. For a moment Theo was worried that she would play to type and just _ask_ why he wasn't attacking them with any of the wands he had left, but instead she just quirked her head curiously and hit him with a Full-Body Bind.

A moment later Theo was flat on his back, staring up the ceiling as Lovegood and the others ran off into the distant, having wretched the other wands out of his hand. Though part of him cursed himself for his mercy, another wondered, vaguely, if that nutter Lovegood was savvy enough to realize that that whole thing had been an act. He hoped she did.

Of course, as a rule, he didn't really care what other people thought of him...but he had to admit, with Lovegood, he could make an exception.


	7. Blaise Zabini

**Author's Notes:** Oh yeah, this fic exists. I got stuck on this prompt forever, and even now look how short it turned out.

* * *

As Pansy noted, Blaise Zabini was picky when it came to girls.

He didn't see why this was a bad thing. He was fit; he was rich; his parents were from two of the most illustrious Pureblood families in the country. Why shouldn't he have high standards?

Of course, there is the old saying, "Love is blind." His mother said that a lot, usually in a mocking tone about men whom she found attractive but who didn't have their own ancestral Gringotts vaults. She wouldn't date them, obviously, but hey, it was nice to look, she'd say, and maybe she would even flirt with them a bit.

Blaise couldn't say why he found Lovegood of all people so attractive; she wasn't ugly, but she wasn't exceptionally good-looking either. Maybe it was just how odd she looked flouncing about, with her too-long hair and her weird earrings and her strangely amiable air of madness. He certainly didn't want to date her, though. She was a half-blood, which _might_ have been acceptable if she wasn't such a blood-traitor, and her father ran a paltry little passion project which probably barely kept food for two on their table. Plus she was, you know, _insane_ _._ Blaise could obviously do better.

But he did often wind up staring at her as she passed. And sometimes he even found himself feeling annoyed when she was talking to another boy, one who was eyeing her with obvious interest.

He really did know better, but sometimes infatuation just couldn't be helped.


End file.
